Group Discusses 'Independence' For Disabled Engineers Consider Centers Where Handicapped Can Pool Resources

November 02, 1985|by MELANIE DEVAULT, The Morning Call

What happens after a physically handicapped person, say a paraplegic, is rehabilitated? Where can a person live on his own, outside of an institution, to be truly independent yet have limited care available?

Those are questions the Community Relations Committee of the Lehigh Valley Chapter, Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers, is grappling with, since one of its members broached the issue recently.

Committee member John Parfitt, a paraplegic and resident of Good Shepherd Home, Raker Center, told fellow members last month that such centers are in existence in other parts of the country, and are needed here in the Lehigh Valley.

And at yesterday's subsequent committee meeting held at Good Shepherd, committee chairman Norman Schaffer said the questions are being explored.

"When I first heard this, I thought let's get a Godfather to refit a building so these people can run their own affairs. If I can't find a Godfather . . . what is wrong with the old Arcadia building? Why can't a portion of that go into limited care living?" Schaffer asked Mayor Joseph Daddona, a special guest at the meeting.

Daddona said that had to go through engineers at Mack Trucks, in charge of that project. "But I definitely can plant that seed," he said.

While Parfitt made no comments at yesterday's meeting, he explained afterward that there is a real need in the area for what are termed Independent Living Centers in other parts of the country.

Good Shepherd, he explained, is a state institution, run by state rules and regulations. "A few of us could get along better in an independent living arrangement, and in turn, people in need of an institution could get into it.

"If we had such an independent center, even five or six people living together, we would delegate our own moves, yet someone would be there to fulfill our needs, nursing care. We could pool our funds to get a vehicle for transportation, for example," he said.

He had estimated that establishment of a housing center, with special equipment to help the handicapped fend for themselves, could cost more than $600,000. Retrofitting existing structures could reduce the costs.

In other matters, Mayor Daddona wasthe featured speaker at the committee's luncheon meeting, talking on "The Vital Role of the Engineer in Community Relations."

He said the group of engineers has, and can continue, to play a vital role in bringing complex issues to understandable levels for the public - issues such as solid waste disposal, the recent drought in the Delaware River Basin, and the dilemma that the area faces because of the shrinking supply of waste water treatment capability.